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January 27, 2003 Volume 27, Issue 21 |
While the request found some sympathy among members, a majority of the Robert Holland Faculty Senate present on Jan. 17 just couldn't see giving Mississippi State students-and themselves-an additional break.
A fall break, that is.
By a vote of 17 to 12 (and one abstention) at the Jan. 17 meeting, the senators declined to support an earlier Student Association-passed recommendation that asks President Charles Lee to add a few days off during the first semester of the regular school year.
A five-day spring semester break-usually in March-traditionally is the only non-holiday related class vacation MSU includes on the academic calendar.
Student Association President Parker Wiseman, a non-voting member of the faculty representative body, presented his organization's case in favor of the break. He supported his remarks with a six-page handout that compared teacher-student semester contact minutes among the state's eight public universities.
During the discussion period, senators learned that MSU's sister comprehensive institutions in Oxford and Hattiesburg have added autumn off days to their annual schedules. Last year, for instance, the University of Mississippi dismissed Monday-Wednesday classes in advance of the usual Thursday-Friday Thanksgiving holiday.
Senator Michael Berk of the School of Architecture, no doubt speaking for many of his colleagues, said he felt the existing spring semester schedule barely provides enough time for students to complete required course requirements. Especially for heavily project-laden curricula found in architecture and similar academics units, he said the impact could be "catastrophic."
While they couldn't go along with the extra break, Berk and the other senators did unanimously support another Student Association proposal to change the dates of final examinations. As a result, the Holland Faculty Senate now is on record in favor of confining the exam period to a single Monday-Friday period, rather than the current schedule that spreads the concluding tests over two weeks.
A single-week exam schedule also designates Saturday and Sunday as the reading period.
A complete summary of these and other matters at the January meeting is available at the senate home page, which is accessed via the "Academic Programs" icon at http://www.msstate.edu, then by scrolling to "Organizations." Also, in time, a University Television Center video replay of the entire meeting will be available at the same site.